TUV takes out full page adverts warning that 'the Northern Ireland Protocol has succeeded where the IRA failed' and dubbing it 'Varadkar's path to Irish unity'

Under the banner ‘A time to be vigilant and strong’, the adverts proclaim that the Protocol succeeded where the IRA failed by creating a border in the Irish Sea.

Referencing recent remarks by Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, it declares: “The Protocol is Varadkar’s path to Irish unity”.

Citing the DUP’s seven tests and urging strict adherence to them, the advert also warns against false warns against laws merely protecting NI to GB trade, or Westminster (rather than Stormont) leading on Protocol implementation, as things which will do nothing “to rectify our annexation into the EU or rid us of the Irish Sea Border or colonial rule.”

Party leader Jim Allister said, “After a week of relentless spin to try and force unionists to accept the Irish Sea Border, TUV has taken out these full-page adverts in weekend papers to spell out the realities of the Windsor Framework and set out the reasons why Unionists can’t return to Stormont.

“This is a seminal moment for Unionism and therefore we want to be clarion clear on the irretrievable folly of succumbing to the pressure to restart the engine of Stormont under the Protocol and with Sinn Fein at the wheel.

“Boxed in by a one-directional Protocol, Stormont will only ever help, not hinder, the insidious process of our detachment from the UK.”

The full single-page adverts will appear in the Friday’s edition on the Belfast Telegraph, and the Saturday edition of the News Letter.